15 Things You Should Always Buy at Yard Sales

Whether your neighbor is hawking a souvenir spoon collection on her lawn or your church has gathered congregants’ donations for a fundraiser, you can dig up some hidden gems at these sometimes-luxe, sometimes-loopy sales.

Plus, pat yourself on the back: Giving these items new life will likely save trash from filling up a landfill.

Here’s a look at things you’d be smart to snatch up at the next yard sale you visit:

1. Le Creuset and Pyrex

Not all of us are educated on many lines of kitchenware, but Le Creuset cookware and Pyrex glassware warrant a little sleuthing.

2. Picture frames

You can print your digital photos or illustrations cheaply enough, but the cost of frames can hang up even the best gallery-wall intentions.

Hunt down frames at yard sales instead.

3. Specialty appliances

Single-use appliances are so tempting. You can almost convince yourself you’d regularly use that cake-pop maker or hot-dog cooker or snow-cone machine. And maybe you would.

But don’t splurge on a new one when you can pick up your neighbor’s barely used gadget for one-tenth of the price.

Who knows, jelly making just might become your jam.

4. Legos

Snap to it: Legos have been popular for generations. Kids love them and grown-ups — if they’ll admit it — often find the plastic bricks mesmerizing and fun, too.

You may not pick up a complete NASA space shuttle set at a yard sale, but a giant crate of mixed bricks should assemble hours of fun.

And if you happen to find the right set, you could really cash in. As we reported in “Your Old Legos Could Be Worth More Than Gold,” a 2015 analysis by the British newspaper The Telegraph found that certain Legos offer better returns than some common investments.

5. Recipe boxes

Cookbooks and online food sites are tasty, but there’s something about a carefully curated flip-top box full of handwritten recipes.

You won’t get rich by buying up these cherished collections, but the fun of traveling through another family’s delectable diary is worth it.

6. Baskets

Never pay full price for a basket: Yard sales and thrift stores have enough for an entire army of Little Red Riding Hoods.

I like to scoop them up cheap and save them for teacher gifts, filling them with favorite snacks and a good bottle of wine.

7. Exercise equipment

Resolving to get in shape, but don’t want to trudge to a health club?

Don’t sweat it: It’s likely that someone with great intentions bought an exercise bike or other piece of workout gear, then sat on the couch and failed to use it. Make their fitness fail your core find.

8. Certain baby items

But it’s generally fine to buy items like baby clothes, strollers and bassinets used. And the price is a real pacifier.

9. Travel guides

Are you Barcelona-bound? Heading for Hawaii? There are online travel guides aplenty, but a good, solid travel guidebook often comes in handy.

Here’s a savvy traveler’s tip: The history, maps and basic info about a region may stay the same for decades, but if you buy a guidebook that’s more than a few years old, verify that hotels and restaurants are still in business before showing up at one. Bon voyage!

10. Sports gear

Obviously, Olympians don’t pick up their ice skates or soccer knee pads at yard sales. But backyard athletes and kids starting out should make it a goal to acquire some sports accessories there.

They’re often only lightly used.

11. Halloween costumes

Creep it real at Halloween by buying used costumes — whether child- or adult-sized — at yard sales.